Should Canada spend 50 times more on war than refugees?

‘Tis the season when Canadians tend to think more of those who have less.

The Christmas season typically inspires many Canadians to reflect on their values, particularly the universal principle of charity, which can cause us to lend an extra hand to those who are suffering largely through no fault of their own.

But as more Canadians feel financially squeezed and complain about paying taxes, I suspect fewer at this time of the year think about the planet’s 10 million refugees — even though their struggles raise difficult questions about Canadians’ commitment to compassion.

What does Canada do for the victims of global conflicts, those desperate to escape religious, ethnic and political persecution?

Through the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, Canada has officially accepted hundreds of thousands of government-assisted refugees since the 1950s, mostly liberating them from grimy, unhealthy, makeshift camps.

The refugees typically arrive in Canada a few years after an international conflict, often one involving western military forces, whether in Vietnam, Central America, the former Yugoslavia, Uganda, Myanmar, Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan.

Life has never been easy for the frequently poor, often-illiterate people who are given refuge in Canada, particularly as they settle in to enclaves for support and try to learn English or French.

This week’s Vancouver Sun series has shown how government-assisted refugees settle into specific neighbourhoods and, especially in their early years, mostly survive on welfare, food banks, second-hand clothing donations, church charity, social services — and, if they’re fortunate, a minimum-wage job.

That has become an even more pronounced trend since 2002, when Canada, after being criticized for taking the “cream of the crop” of refugees, switched its policy to lend a hand to refugees in the direst straits.

Polls consistently show Canadians proudly think of themselves as international humanitarians.

But the relatively few Canadians who are aware of the dilemma of government-assisted refugees question whether we are doing enough.

They point out that Canada’s refugee-resettlement budget remains stagnant, at $54 million a year.

At the same time, our military budget has mushroomed to $2.4 billion a year. In other words, Ottawa spends roughly one-fiftieth of its military budget on assisting refugees in this country.

To be fair, that ratio is not much different from that of many other wealthy countries.

But is it a financial ratio Canadians are satisfied with as we seek to act on our global responsibilities?

For instance, Canadian troops are no longer seriously involved in United Nations peacekeeping missions, with Ottawa having, in recent years, chosen more direct-combat roles.

Paradoxically, much of our military budget is now funnelled toward a much questioned continuing war in Afghanistan, the country that is the world’s largest source of refugees, including to Canada.

In addition, Canada continues to take only a tiny fraction of the world’s refugees. The vast majority of the planet’s exiles end up some day returning to their homelands, or trying to eke out an existence in a neighbouring country.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning United Nations High Commission on Refugees, however, organizes the resettlement of about 110,000 refugees each year.

About 80,000 of them go to the United States, to the surprise of those who think the U.S. puts virtually all its resources into its massive military spending.

Aus t r a l i a , me anwhi l e , accepts about 15,000 government-assisted refugees a year, Canada about 8,000 and Norway and Sweden about 1,500 each. Other European countries take lower quotas.

Whether or not Canadians seriously re-examine the amount Ottawa spends each year on our military with an eye to increasing refugee-resettlement funding, many other chronic issues cry out for reform.

New refugees from war-torn Iraq, victims of invasion and its repercussions.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts and her council have been leaders on one of them. They’ve called on Ottawa to stop requiring refugees to repay their airfares to Canada — the only refugee-welcoming nation with such a practice.

As the Sun series showed, the pressure on refugees to repay the loan — with interest — is devastating for most of those arriving from Myanmar, Somalia, Bhutan, Iraq and dozens of other countries as they strive to make a go of it in Canada.

But the loan-repayment rule is not the only problem. Several made-in-B. C. policies make things especially difficult for the roughly 800 refugees who come to this province each year.

Those who support refugees often cite how difficult it is for these newcomers to get ahead in a province with the highest rental costs in Canada, the lowest minimum wage, one of the lowest welfare rates and the highest incidence of child poverty.

It’s worth remembering that government-assisted refugees are specifically invited to Canada, unlike asylum seekers, who, rightly or wrongly, show up at our borders and airports and then ask for refugee status.

Yet, despite officially being committed to giving some of the world’s most persecuted a fresh start, many of our policies conspire to erase refugees’ potential opportunities — not to mention the hopes of all others struggling below the poverty line.

It raises a contradiction: Why are we allowing politicians to put so many roadblocks in the way of the long-suffering government-assisted refugees we’ve formally welcomed to try to begin a new life in Canada?

It would not be a bad thing if the cries of the world’s refugees encouraged Canadians, especially British Columbians, to ask: Are we yet the humanitarian nation we want to be?

every time i turn on the news i can’t help but think yes we should put more into our own protection, i mean it’s better to have it and not need it , then to need it and not have it,,,better safe than sorry we stand on guard for thee ,,,right?

Douglas, The question about whether Canada is doing enough for refugees/poorer countries came under the spotlight when Canada did not get a seat in the UN Security Council. Nobody cares about the UN. They are irrelevant. Actually, there is one small group of people who care. Politicians. The only Canadians who care about the UN and getting a seat on the UN Security Council are politicians looking to make political gains from Canada’s failure to get a seat on this useless, toothless council. Who gives a cr@p what these people think? How much money are Canadians paying to house, educate and provide medical care for so-called refugees paying large sums of money to get here by boat? If we’re so stingy at accepting refugees, why are we considered a soft target for people smugglers? Why are these smugglers crossing the entire Pacific Ocean when Australia is but a stone’s throw away? Canada is a VERY immigrant-friendly country. I’m proud of this fact. If the UN think we can do more, maybe it’s time for them to look in the mirror.

the good Note to :(required) The person who posted at 5:20PM January 4th is the other entity that uses the same moniker; every FYI post on this thread with the exception of that 5:20 is from me. Peace out.

Sadly, most people (and most networks) have become bored with the war in Afghanistan. This is precisely when people take out their magnifying glasses when they look at what the war is costing us. Should Canada be spending 50 times more on war than refugees? Let’s put it this way. I’m sure almost all of us spend more money on security (ie: door locks, window locks, bike locks, window bars, house alarms, car alarms, immobilizers, self-defence classes) than we donate to support refugees. Personally, I would like to see Canada keep our military spending at a minimum, avoid war altogether (if possible) and help out as many refugees as we can. However, I’m not about to sell the locks in my house for scrap metal.

:(required), I am beginning to investigate the story because of your prompting (below). Right wingers listen very carefully. You crow about patriotism; you let your soldiers die or live in poverty. You are a hypocritical, sickening disgrace. You leave it up to the left wingers to rise and show compassion, and fight for the meagre social programs that still run; we fight even for those military whom you cheered off onto some foreign battlefield so you could live uninterrupted your fat cat lifestyle, and make your empty claims of being God’s chosen to live in prosperity. Watch out for those who claim to represent our highest morals and ethics, then close the coffers and scurry away when it is time to pay for our brothers in arms. Harper and Campbell, you deal in death, sell-out and corruption: your time is done. OTTAWA CITIZEN August 17, 2010 Dave Pugliese writes: “This afternoon (Tuesday afternoon) Stogran will be holding a press conference, essentially to try to shame the government and Veterans Affairs to provide for the country’s veterans….some are suggesting it will be one last hurrah since he is being shown the door by the Harper government.”… “There’s huge amounts of pushback from central agencies on anything to do with veterans in any way might mean more money going out. “Deputy ministers make more on average in one year than a person who loses two legs in Afghanistan can expect to be paid out for the rest of their life.” “Figure that one out.” Stogran also said there has been a major shift in attitude of the Ottawa bureaucracy towards veterans; in decades past there was an understanding that programs for veterans were important and public servants made sure that message was relayed to government ministers, he added. With Canada facing a new wave of war veterans coming home from the Afghan conflict that attitude has changed, explained Stogran. “I have meet people who spent their careers in the department (of Veterans Affairs) who said it used to be that you would go to PCO or Treasury Board with a new program or an entitlement, the response was, ‘Our veterans deserve it, bring it on, we’ll present it to the political masters.’ “Now if it involves new monies it doesn’t even leave the department,” he added.” http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/defencewatch/archive/2010/08/17/veterans-ombudsman-pat-stogran-s-last-hurrah.aspx P.S. At one time not too long ago, two posters with opposite values and politics posted as FYI; Jonn Mick dubbed me “good” to distinguish between the posters. If another :(required) shows up, I dub thee “wise”. Take care out there, friend.

Heh Repentent—I am not angry—just stating the truth. There is NO such entity as GOD, so nothing is done via ITS agenda. Those insecure who need to concoct some deity and fantasy and non-sensical rituals to allay their fears have every right to, just as long as they don’t expect the rest of the world to blindly follow that pile of DOG-DOO. Canadians taxpayers DO NOT owe the rest of the world a cent. Taxes should NOT be used to fund wars that Canada has no business being in or for FOREIGN AIDE. If Canadian citizens wish to donate their personal money for foreign aide or wars, the Gov’t should use only that money NOT taxes. Refugees should be immediately returned via how they came. If they can afford to pay thousands of dollars to gangsters to get here, then they can apply via the proper channels. What the third world needs is BIRTH CONTROL. If they didn’t breed like rabbits there, they may be able to live a good enough life and not need to run off elsewhere. Unfortunately, corrupt medieval RELIGIONS, force the ignorant to breed mindlessly so the leaders have plently of “souls” to exploit. Such non-sense. Mankind is supposed to evolve intelligently NOT wallow in the ignorant past, as religion forces people to. Charity begins at home.

Ah, come on FYI…you didn’t think you’d get away with that ‘kick my butt’ part, did you? Everyone can see that you’ve been won over by my winsome ways and boyish smile, ha ha hah! Something I wanted to let you know before I go back to mandatory silence on blogs and things….have you been following the firing of Veterans Ombudsman Pat Strongan (I think spelling is right) and the recently passed Veteran’s Charter? You should look up the Ottawa citizen series on him and his views…and what happened to him for speaking out. Did you know that a veteran who looses both legs is elible for a single lump sum payment of $250K? That govt doesn’t want to know about soldier’s with PTSD who go homeless? Theirs a lot more, but I don’t want to make your blood boil… Can you imagine what might happen to a soldier who lost his legs getting UP TO $250K? Like, how likely is it with PTSD/grief/anger/isolation he might drink himself to death within a couple of years? Anyway, I figured with your compassion and having talked about measuring loses in lives, you might be in knowing about what can happen to our people ‘in the care of’ VA. Someone should make some noise about it, but no one inside can..or look at what happened to Lt. Col. Strongan. Anyway, I won’t be able to blog anymore soon so you’ll be rid of me. But I can still read you so don’t worry….I’ll be watching. Peace. P.S. How come your…the good? Should I be signing :(required) the not-so-bad?

To :(required) You have to take excellent care of yourself and come back to follow your dreams; also come back to the blog so I can kick your butt (joke). I looked for something appropriate to put here, to let you know that you are cared for, wherever you are: Theodore Roosevelt “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” All the best to you sir.

Canadians are the worlds number one victim worshipers. We are happiest when we feel guilty about “having it too good”,and then satisfy our guilt feelings by accusing others of “not doing enough for the less fortunate”. Without victims to worship we can’t be happy Canadians.

@FYI – Your comment ‘the tension, the no win situation’ pretty much sums it up. I wonder if Canada and the other countries that went into the war would be willing to spend the same or more money trying to help Afghans build a functioning democracy. If we did, would a stable democracy survive over there or is it like Unrepentant says….Canada is in Afghanistan to try to make them conform to our perspective and way of life…because theres some truth to that, we’re saying their lives will be better under our structure. Are we offering a wonderful meal, but our guests regard it as repugnant? Are we inficting democracy on an unwilling population? If so, are education health rights and rule of law worth it? Appreciate the info on the Universal Soldier and Buffy St. Marie. In a funny parallel I left the CF a while back and began university…never too late right?…looking maybe teaching or mayeb something in medicine. I loved it. But I can’t afford to live here and can’t find work to help me out while I’m going to school so I’m heading back in for a while longer to save up more money to finish. Thanks for the convo FYI. I’ll think of you while I’m in ‘there’, and please don’t spit on me if you see me wearing my uniform (joke). Peace FYI.

CLARIFICATION: – Cavalcanti is my mother’s maiden name, coming in a direct lineage from the ancient royal Cavalcanti family of Firenze, i.e. Florence]. It is not mine the following comment: “@ January 02, 2011 – 10:15 PM Cavalcanti [my mother’s maiden name], The @ symbol is often used to mean “at”, as in dummy@hotmail.com. Journalist comes from “Buddhist Journalist Refugee Machado” who signed the 5:01 p.m. post. So yeah, since I directed my comment @ the 5:01 p.m. poster I am fully qualified to do that. And speaking of false nicknames, how many variations are you up to now, 6 or 7, and all of them without asking the questions you have been asked? So to stay on point as you pretend to wish answer the questions that have been asked of you, including what qualifies you, who at one instance wishes to make no judgements, to refuse to own up to your own judgmental nature. As for clean, no one here’s said anything dirty – yet.” __________________________________________

Cavalcanti [my mother’s maiden name], The @ symbol is often used to mean “at”, as in dummy@hotmail.com. Journalist comes from “Buddhist Journalist Refugee Machado” who signed the 5:01 p.m. post. So yeah, since I directed my comment @ the 5:01 p.m. poster I am fully qualified to do that. And speaking of false nicknames, how many variations are you up to now, 6 or 7, and all of them without asking the questions you have been asked? So to stay on point as you pretend to wish answer the questions that have been asked of you, including what qualifies you, who at one instance wishes to make no judgements, to refuse to own up to your own judgmental nature. As for clean, no one here’s said anything dirty – yet.

A tribe of anonymous, hiding under the falsity of nicknames, deserve no attention at all. And ‘@ Journalist etc’ are you a journalist, to present yourself as such? No need to answer. By the way, I am not ignoring his question. I am ignoring him. He did not keep it clean. And this is the rule here: Keep it clean and stay on the subject, or I delete you out of my comments. ____________________________ @ Journalist etc Raven’s keeping it clean, but you are ignoring the question, about your “judgment”.

Keep it clean, Raven. And stay on the subject of my comments here, whenever you mention my name as well as my comments, as you did in the harassment that you have already signed: “Raven – January 02, 2011 – 1:43 PM Buddhist Journalist Refugee Machado, if you are not a judge of anyones behavior,how should we interpret your comments on this blog questioning the amount of money Canada spends on refugees? Your refusal to answer the two questions can be taken as proof that Canada comes closer following Buddha’ s teaching than does the the most wealthy Buddhist countries. Isn’t that the reason you sought refugee status in Canada?” _________________________________________________

Buddhist Journalist Refugee Machado, if you are not a judge of anyones behavior,how should we interpret your comments on this blog questioning the amount of money Canada spends on refugees? Your refusal to answer the two questions can be taken as proof that Canada comes closer following Buddha’ s teaching than does the the most wealthy Buddhist countries. Isn’t that the reason you sought refugee status in Canada?

In my opinion, this is a question that should be presented to the governments of the countries involved, since I am not one of their representatives. They are the only authorities who can offer reliable information about their refugees, since they are their sole responsibility. Not mine. As to how well the most wealthy Buddhist countries follow the religion of the Buddha, I would strongly suggest you to go there and ask them personally, since I am no judge of anyone’s behaviour. __________________________________ “Raven – January 02, 2011 – 11:15 AM Buddhist Journalist Refugee Machado, can you give us a rough idea of how much money the two/three most wealthy, predominately Buddhist, countries spend on refugees? How well do you feel the most wealthy,predominately Buddhist, countries follow the teachings of Buddha ?”

Buddhist Journalist Refugee Machado, can you give us a rough idea of how much money the two/three most wealthy, predominately Buddhist, countries spend on refugees? How well do you feel the most wealthy,predominately Buddhist, countries follow the teachings of Buddha ?

Rocky, In reference to your January 1 posting, are you pretending to be the original Rocky or are you just taking his name now that he has abandoned it on December 30 @ 9:21 PM? All posters should watch carefully to see if the tone and language of Rocky’s comments carry on or start to originate within a different mindset.

m123 I appreciate the video. It brought me to tears early on. The tension, the no-win situation. Hearts and minds… same phrase used for Vietnam. I read several of the comments. If the average Canadian thinks it is fine to vote for this, then they have to bear responsibility for the young Canadians dying without good reason there. Apathy will not do. The bystander lets others pay with their lives and continues on oblivious. They only vote if one of the home luxuries is threatened – what a spineless people – I agree with Jonn Mick that most people are ass**les and this is why – we gladly let others take the bullet and the bomb and whine about relative trivia. Is human life so cheap? We should not be in Afghanistan, spinning around trying to avenge a 9-year old attack on the U.S. twin towers. If it was the intention to topple the U.S. economy, they did it, by baiting them into endless ‘war on terror.’ I was struck by one commenter’s poem in the video link, and I will put it here, with some added info found online at the end: Universal Soldier He’s five foot-two, and he’s six feet-four, He fights with missiles and with spears. He’s all of thirty-one, and he’s only seventeen, Been a soldier for a thousand years. He’a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain, A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew. And he knows he shouldn’t kill, And he knows he always will, Kill you for me my friend and me for you. And he’s fighting for Canada, He’s fighting for France, He’s fighting for the USA, And he’s fighting for the Russians, And he’s fighting for Japan, And he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way. And he’s fighting for Democracy, He’s fighting for the Reds, He says it’s for the peace of all. He’s the one who must decide, Who’s to live and who’s to die, And he never sees the writing on the wall. But without him, How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau? Without him Caesar would have stood alone, He’s the one who gives his body As a weapon of the war, And without him all this killing can’t go on. He’s the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame, His orders come from far away no more, They come from here and there and you and me, And brothers can’t you see, This is not the way we put the end to war – Buffy Sainte-Marie, 1962 Sainte-Marie wrote Universal Soldier in 1962, a time when people fretted over missile gaps, Khrushchev and the H-bomb. Vietnam was still a couple of years off the American radar. She had been writing songs in college while studying Oriental philosophy. She hadn’t considered music a career. She wanted to be a teacher, a vocation still close to her heart. At the time, she wrote songs without thinking anyone would hear them. Then she got the record deal. Universal Soldier was released in 1964. It wasn’t long before the song became the anthem of the anti-war movement, despite the fact it was pretty much banned on U.S. radio. “It’s about the personal responsibility of all of us, ” she says of the song which is now in the Canadian Songwriting Hall of Fame. “Because we can’t blame just the soldier for the war, or just the career military officer, or just the politician. We have to blame ourselves too since we are living in an era where we actually elect our politicians.” http://www.creative-native.com/universal-soldier.php

“Bear in mind what I have explained as explained and what I have not explained as unexplained.” “I do not need to hide behind false names to post here.” Douglas Todd deleted. __________________ The first sentence of my comment above, was quoted from one of the most sacred teachings of the Buddha. I am a Buddhist refugee. The second one was a direct reference to two comments, posted here under nicknames, that is, under false names. As Dictionaries of English define that nicknames are not real names, consequently nicknames are FALSE names.

FYI and Jymanee, et al: Count to ten before delivering that angry response is what we were taught in school. That is advice that I have followed all my life and have never suffered insomnia. Make an attempt to understand your opponent’s point of view before exploding in anger. Whatever makes you believe that the world’s leaders know what they are doing? Jymanee has spent his anger. People continue to be slaughtered, all based on the mistaken notion of the nature of God. Perhaps the strategy proposed by FYI is correct. Without anger change may not take place and injustice may not be remedied. Every coin has two sides. “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord of Hosts,” is the philosophy that I have adhered to with horrendous results to my opponent that I would not have effected myself because I tend to be patient and forgiving. In spite of that I am not a “politically correct couch potato.” Yes, we do have a full set of emotions for several good reasons, but in my era “keeping a poker face” was reinforced and enforced. Times have changed. Man has progressed. Steven Weinberg, Nobel laureate, reminds us, “For good people to do evil things it takes religion.” To soldiers in Afghanistan and soldiers everywhere. You are not going to change society, but for Heaven’s sake before lobbing that hand grenade count to three. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk

Canadian troops are in Afghanistan to bring humanitarian democracy, education and woman’s rights etc. ? ? ? What a LOAD of BS ! What a smoke screen ! It IS ALL about MONEY and who has the right to make it. The Taliban was set up by the US CIA and British MI-6 whose strings are pulled by the World Wealthy Elite who had run out of wars to make money from selling armaments, since the Soviet Iron Curtain and Cold War had disintegrated and China had suddenly become an industrial friend. SO they needed to create a new “EVIL” empire to fear-monger the world into believing they have to fight—to send into slaughter young healthy men and women and force taxpayers to pay THE BILL Al-queda was also one of these creations. 9/11 was also staged by the CIA to justify wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—the Towers were becoming obsolete and would cost the owners trillions to update or replace—let the taxpayer pay the bill to remove them. Stage a catastrophe—clear away the towers and create a NEW EVIL ENEMY—two birds with one stone ! Canada should have never sent troops. If the Afghani do NOT want the Taliban governing them, then why have they NOT killed them off themselves YET ? ? The Afghani know who they are. If they don’t have guns to shoot them, they have knives and machetees and spears or even pitch forks to kill them when they come into their villages. Obviously the majority of Afghanis still believe in the “WAR-LORD” philosophy. It will take 50 to 100 years of total isolation—a fence around the country—with a UN or other military foreign government in charge, to change the minds of at least three generations, to change anything there. I DO NOT believe Canadians owe the Afghanis anything, let alone 50+ years of occupation and 100s of billions of dollars for military costs and aide. It’ s Time Harper and Rae and Layton started looking after the welfare of Canadians at home—the millions of poor right under their noses ! ! The BS that Canada is such a wealthy country that it can afford to feed and clothe and look after the medical needs of the whole world is just that —a LOAD of BS ! ! If Canada is so rich then why does it have a federal DEBT of over 500 BILLION DOLLARS—costing taxpayers 30 million dollars per HOUR just to service the interest ? ? and the Harper Government has added over 50 billion to that debt and still keeps spending like drunken sailors with NO LIMIT credit cards ? ? Is this the action of RESPONSIBLE governing ? ? I think NOT! Catering to the wealth of the already FILTHY RICH seems to be the only priority of Harper and Campbell. The poor can rot. If needed, the third world is over-flowing with the unwanted, that can be imported very easily, if the Canadians do not want to work. The Wealthy that pull the strings of governments DO NOT care about the welfare of the workers, just as long as they can be exploited with no taxes paid by the investor to the country, and maximum profits are paid to the wealthy foreign investors looters racketeers. A PAY-AS-YOU-GO society is what Harper and Campbell are trying to deceivingly create. They talk CUT TAXES but put the fees up for everything and put the cost of housing up dramatically—choking the poor workers—forcing full-time workers to depend on FOOD BANKS just to stay alive. What HYPOCRISY ! ! Foreign investors do not pay Canadian taxes, while the Canadian citizen has to pay more just to keep alive to be exploited. The makings of a sad sad world—a new world feudal system with old world feudal philosophy. The unfortunate “evolution” of man.

Thank you, FYI. The video is about 15 minutes long and isn’t gory. It also doesn’t gloss over how soldier’s attitudes changes for the worse. I’ve never understood the problem with anger so long as there is mutual respect. It doesn’t matter wether argument results in agreement…just recognition of point of view is enough, and there is always, always common ground somewhere I apologise for my earlier sarcasm….which is just another form of anger. I’d like to add a quote to your last comment, if I may. Bede Jarrett was a wise 20th C Dominican monk who believed in and pursued social justice. He said “The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn’t angry enough.” Peace.

the good Some reading material for UNREP and the anger-phobes – is this part of your repressed Canadian identity – that all anger is bad in your view? “Generally speaking, anger is what prevents us from passively accepting societal wrongdoings and ignites us to take action. Many of society’s most important changes have come about because people got angry with the way things were and set out to correct those injustices. Some examples include the Women’s Rights Movement, the abolishment of slavery, and the Civil Rights Movement. Over the years, many groups and organizations have formed in an effort to channel their anger in a positive, constructive manner. Among them are Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and the numerous anti-hate groups that exist today. Outraged by the mistreatment of others, many have pushed for new laws over the years including those to protect children, the mentally ill and mentally challenged, people of different religions and ethnic backgrounds, the handicapped and disabled, and many other groups. Countless people have been helped by the actions of those who experienced anger and decided to do something positive to make things better. So the next time that you lose your cool and say or do something that you regret, just remember that anger does not have to be your downfall. Instead of blaming someone else or wallowing in self-pity, take responsibility for your actions and get to work on improving your anger management skills. After all, look at all the great things that can be accomplished when anger is channeled properly.” http://www.angermanagementgroups.com/AngerCanBePositive.html We have a full set of emotions for several good reasons. I know what I stand for. I am proud of the life I have lived. I advocate for those less fortunate. I fight for justice. How about you? Are you a politically correct couch potato? It’s about perspective, personality and how you live out your integrity at the end of the day.

the good m123 thanks for the CBC video link; I’ll watch it tomorrow. I appreciate the exchange and am glad that you are on the thread. I’m very close to someone who has seen a lot of death and combat and I know that person to be very caring. These are difficult and crucial realities. Peace back to you.

FYI: “Why the [heck] is Canada in Afghanistan…if more people thought, instead of just typing ‘peace’ maybe we’d have more peace…” Fundamentalist beliefs are fueled by faith that denies reasoning. Canada is in Afghanistan to try to make them conform to our perspective and way of life. Democracy with no stoning, no beheadings, health and education for women, etc., features of society that we value highly and take for granted. Afghanistan is rich in mineral resources that the Taliban prevents western companies from exploiting. Deprogramming anyone from their fundamentalist belief is a virtually impossible task that stands less than a fraction of one percent chance of success, despite the fact that religion is based on the flawed concept that of the dual nature of man, i.e., physical and spiritual, that God by a process of deduction and elimination must be spiritual. The existence of God is unknown and unknowable and beyond the comprehension of man. The spiritual entity mistakenly assumed to be God derives its power from the spilling of blood. Typing “peace” will not result in lack of war so long as religion plays a role in persons’ lives. As the Knights Templar discovered long ago the true object of man’s worship was the bloodthirsty Bahomet. The only role that anger plays in your life is to subtract from the days of your comfortable existence.

@ FYI…I take it that your interest is to see Afghan people live peaceably…. Agreed, that is absolutely my interest and the interest of most people I served with which accounts for my irritation at being stereotyped as a vioelnt neanderthal. A guy serving can see terrible things, some of which he can do something about, some of which he can’t. I didn’t spend time with anyone who didn’t want to help. If your lucky you deal with more stuff you can do smething about. So being a qualified soldier and a caring human being (you may think the two are exclusive, but it’s not true) I also agree fully with the article poitned out by Light. Afghanistan was unwinnable when my dad went through in ’43. The only people who can win Afghanistan are the Afghans, and they need more time and money and support to build a national peace than we ever spent on war. And so many of them are scared, their like kids looking at a table of candy but afraid to take some because they can be hurt in so many ways if they’re outed to the Taliban. Some are forced to fight with the Taliban or their family will be killed. Asking for help can get you killed. Hell, talking to us about the weather could get people killed. Most really do want some changes in their country, an infrastructure. We’re trying to help them build it themselves so they own it but it’s like pouring water into sand to build a lake – will it ever be a lake? Is a lake achievable? If the tribal nature can be broken…and I’m not sure it can…Afghans could live in security and safety. They wouldn’t have to leave and probaly wouldn’t want to. That’s how I’d define success in Afghanistan…families living in peace with a decent economy and a sense of personal security. It’s something they neer had before and their scared sh!tless to believe in it…for good reason. Here’s a video of what the CF is really trying to do over there. It shows the legitimate confusion and suspicions on both sides – ironically, day and nightime. http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/07/13/f-video-nakhonay-afghanistan-canadian.html …Why the hell is Canada in Afghanistan?….the story is thegovernment you and I share decided to go along with the UN along with over 40 other countries …I don’t care if it is above your payscale to think about the rationale of the missions….yeah, well I don’t care if you don’t care – what Canadians pay me for its to do as I’m told. They told me to fight the forest fires – did that. Red River Flood – did that too. Didn’t enjoy them either, but Military isn’t is run on consensus. ….If more people refused to fight pointless wars, if more people thought, instead of just typing ‘peace’ maybe we’d have more peace instead of arguing about it….I guess you meanfewer people join the military. Hmm. So who are we going to send to Haiti? Rwanda? Bosnia? About Peace: you better believe that it’s sincere coming from me because if their isn’t a breakout of peace who’s going to go? Me or you? So yeah….peace, FYI

Now what is the message there? The message is that there are known “knowns.” There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that’s basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns.

My previous post was December 28 @12:36 PM. The post signed “Rocky” @ 5:41 PM December 30 came from the infamous “handle thief” so this is in fact the last post you’ll see from the real Rocky. I remember when The Search was a source of interesting and enlightening discussion. Too bad it’s been transformed into a street corner where only the biggest bullies survive.

“War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” ~General Smedley Butler http://antiwar.com/quotes.php Whatever you already believe, you’ll find someone to support and validate your views. You may rationalize that “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf” but that is a damn lie. You could use that to justify many a type of homicide. I fully support people like Lauryn Oates and think that we should commit to longterm rebuilding of the Afghan society after 2011, as the article by “Light” points to. I take it that your interest is to see Afghan people live peaceably. This war is a disaster. Taliban are horrific; I don’t know when we’ll see the end of them. Afghanistan has never been won by outsiders and has been in war for 35 years. No one wins there. I know Afghans who lived there in the good old days, in the seventies. And some of the more recent refugees. Not all of them want Canada in there; some do. I do not know the solution. But we have, like the Russians, who found out the hard way, just lost a war for the past ten years. Lives, money, credibility lost. Why the hell is Canada in Afghanistan? I don’t care if it is above your payscale to think about the rationale of the missions. If more people refused to fight pointless wars, if more people thought, instead of just typing ‘peace’ maybe we’d have more peace instead of arguing about it.

Having an opinion and getting into heated debate definitely opens one up for the charge of being judgmental. If you do not agree with my opinion, so be it. There is a place for anger, when the truth is that we are allowing people and sometimes causing people to be in dire straits, for example in sweat shops in other countries. We are allowing people to come to grave harm to hypocritically preserve a very comfortable lifestyle over here. Did you know that the Canadian mining sector has one of the higher rates in the world for perpetuating human rights violations offshore? Is it okay with you, because you’re nice and comfy here? Do you think you might be a tad angry if atrocities happened to you or your family, in the name of the almighty 1% rich and pampered of the world? What do you stand for? What is your purpose for being on the blog? Are you the amateur Freud? Or perhaps a somewhat inept blogger that can’t put very cohesive thoughts together on a topic? Now, try to debate on a topic without getting lazy and using the word ‘bully’ over and over. It’s old already.

FYI: “If they are humble, they are welcome at my table. You don’t qualify.” Far from revealing your “peaceful political bent” it is apparent that you are an ostentatious, acrimonious, supercilious, pusillanimous, colonialist, censorious, vituperative, querulous, embittered, obsessive, bombastic, bully that is using this column to vent repressed anger. Are you certain that you are not being judgmental and displaying a little arrogance yourself?

Hello Ms. Machado. Could you please explain this comment: “Your article is the shortest path to throw good Canadian citizens cutting the throats of all foreigners in Canada.” I get the Nazi-ism reference, but what the heck are you talking about in this quoted sentence? Are you actually saying that a question as to whether refugees get enough support is going to cause Canadians to cut the throats of foreigners? Hon, this is not Afghanistan. Canadians are often frustrated with the changes that large groups of immigrants are bringing to this country and we might vent about it plenty, but when is the last time a foreigner was murdered by a Canadian just for being here? C’mon. We just don’t do that. When immigrants get murdered it’s far more likely to be someone from their own ethnic cohort, not Canadians, and statistics will back that up so don’t be calling me a bigot for saying a plain fact. We don’t burn churches or gang rape people with cloth on their faces either, though I’ve heard some people try to claim that…

Wow FYI, you sound like a really angry person. A peaceful person who stereotypes people who are different from themselves. Hmmm. So much for ….and at the same time respect the different ways people contribute… Maybe it’s true that everyone needs someone to hate, and in your case its the CF. You make huge assumptions about me and what I think about G20, Congo, China, peace, guns, mass rapes and genocides. There wrong but that won’t dent your opinion because of who you’ve already decided I am. You need to go even further and diagnose me with a superiority complex and self-righteous. And then – IM a bully, after you started in on my comments addressed to Mr. Mick. But whatever it takes to hate, buddy, if that’s how you keep breathing. I understand some people need hate to feel unified, grounded and right. Your peaceful tolerance is based on sterotyping and hating ‘the other’ – that would be me and through me, CF, government and war. You write as though I’m a 2dimensional cut-out, accountable for all atrocity that has ever happened on the globe. Re: China and Congo, ask Parliament why we aren’t there- it’s above my paygrade to decide where to go but I go where I’m told. Oh but wait, you want to hold me and every uniformed personally responsible for where the goverment sends us – right. The foam on your lips must have made it hard for you to read my comment, where I said sprecifically…To whoever thanked me for my service, thank you for saying that. I don’t expect it, but I appreciate it…. I don’t expect thanks for something I’m paid to do, and yes, I’m proud of what I do. “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” George Orwell Sleep well, FYI. Peace.

“Afghanistan’s reconstruction is the most ambitious project in the history of the United Nations. It’s the largest mobilization of Canadian soldiers in 60 years, and the largest project in the history of Canada’s foreign aid initiatives, but the Special Committee on Afghanistan is now the biggest inside joke on Parliament Hill.” http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/03/17/CanadasNewMission/

“free speech and all that nonsense small l liberals like so much.” Thank God we’re not all out on a battlefield playing GI Joe. You talk like a bully and pick fights. JM is not protected or an explosive. You needn’t say a thing, if possible, that I reveal my peaceful political bent. You are sarcastic and have a superiority complex; having a gun pointed at people gives you the right to play god does it? Then we are supposed to thank you, thank you. For what? Not for saving this country. Not in this war. It is about oil. Why do we not fight for human rights in China? Why are Congo mass rapes and genocides okay? You sound dangerously self-righteous and against the ‘nutbar’ types who hold the rogue cops at G20 to account. Have I got it right? Who, really, is the bully. And don’t worry, poppy commander, I wear a white poppy for remembrance day, because I am not a sheep. I am quite aware and proud of what I stand for. But I don’t start conversations by bashing anyone in the military. If they are humble, they are welcome at my table. You don’t qualify.

Douglas Todd,how much more money should we be redistributing both within Canada and internationally before our social justice bullies concede that Canadians have shown compassion for the less fortunate?